African Court Slams Benin’s Treatment of ‘Chicken King’ Ajavon
- Tanzania-based court tells Benin to annul prison sentence
- Millionaire Sebastien Ajavon lives in exile in France
Sebastien Ajavon
Photographer: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
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An African human-rights court slammed Benin’s treatment of former presidential candidate Sebastien Ajavon, who lives in exile in France after being sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison on drug-trafficking charges.
Civil-society groups in Benin said the government has become more authoritarian since the 2016 election of Patrice Talon as president. Ajavon, who came in third, was tried by a newly created economic-crimes court last year even though he was acquitted two years earlier.